


Can't Things Just be Normal Again?

by marguerite_26



Series: my mating games ficlets and drabbles [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Dreams vs. Reality, F/M, Mindfuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 15:30:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marguerite_26/pseuds/marguerite_26
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Hale is nothing like Kate Argent, even if they share a face, a voice, a laugh.</p><p>It makes it both harder and easier to believe that the world of werewolves and arson was all a horror film playing out in his brain -- just names and faces of people he barely knew. The doctors suggest that his insecurities created that life: extreme self-doubt fabricating an entire world around his fear of failure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Things Just be Normal Again?

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Mating Games challenge: Ties that Bind. Inspired in part by the Buffy episode _Normal Again_.
> 
> And thanks to **eleadore** for the beta and advice.

Derek’s eyes open slowly, blinking at the bright lights, the harsh white of a hospital room.

A woman’s voice breaks through the beeping and the hum of the machines he’s hooked up to. It’s familiar.

“Oh, Derek.” A mess of dark blond hair covers his chest and he’s being hugged. “Thank God!”

“Mrs. Hale!” A nurse pulls the woman off him. “Mrs. Hale, I’m sorry, but you are going to need to let us examine him.”

Chris Argent is pulling Kate away. Her eyes are red, wet with tears as she looks back at Derek. The shock of seeing her alive again sends his heart racing and has the nurse clearing the room and calling for a doctor.

*

Derek stares at the door, trembling at the thought Kate could walk through it. Everyone seems just as confused as he is. The nurses give him pitying looks that make him want to scream.

They try to explain to him that he’s been in a coma. That his memories aren’t real. They have to tie his arms and legs for his own protection and theirs. He isn’t strong enough to break in bindings, even though they are just leather. He’s human; it takes him three days to accept that.

But Derek refuses to believe that anyone named Kate Hale could exist. He wants to rip the gold band from his finger but it’s been on too long, fits too snugly.

*

“I promise we’ll start slow.” Kate’s tone is so sincere, he wishes he still had the ability to hear her heartbeat to know if she’s lying.

He’s lost that too, along with his sanity.

She steps towards the bed. “Please, just listen to what I have to say.” She looks at him like she had that first day with soft eyes and a sassy smile. It makes his chest ache and his stomach roll.

She starts talking. He stares up at the ceiling, telling himself it’s all lies.

*

One day she takes his hand and he doesn’t flinch.

He begins to forget the smell of Peter’s burnt skin, Laura’s open-eyed stare as he buried her. He starts to doubt.

*

She’s patient, impossibly patient with him. Kate Hale is nothing like Kate Argent, even if they share a face, a voice, a laugh.

It makes it both harder and easier to believe that the world of werewolves and arson was all a horror film playing out in his brain -- just names and faces of people he barely knew. The doctors suggest that his insecurities created that life: extreme self-doubt fabricating an entire world around his fear of failure.

*

He bumps into the Sheriff as he’s being discharged.

His name is John. It’s odd that he never knew that in his dreamworld. It’s a random detail, but it makes the world he’s in now feel more real for some reason.

*

Kate takes him back to a house, shows him their wedding photos and cooks him dinner.

Then she takes him to the bedroom they’ve apparently shared for five years.

She strips him down, humming in delight at his body. And this part is familiar. Her touch feels so right, it’s easy to not fight it. He once thought she loved him and maybe he hadn’t been wrong?

She licks his chest and Derek’s stomach clenches.

Looking up at him, she grins. “Do you remember this, baby?”

He does, but it didn’t quite go like this. He says nothing; it’s enough for her. She slides up his body and kisses him, sinking down on his cock so quickly they both cry out.

She rides him hard. She’s a master at this, knows just how to tilt her hips. Her legs are strong enough to keep a frantic pace. He remembers this, only this time the scratches she leaves on his chest don’t heal instantly.

“I missed you,” she says, once they’re spent and sweaty.

“I missed you, too.” He’s ashamed that he’s not even lying.

*

He looks out the window as they drive through the preserve; the leaves on the trees blur.

Kate thinks he’s ready. He’s not sure, the false memories are still vivid every time he closes his eyes. He still wonders sometimes if this version is the dream. His wedding band itches.

But as the house comes into view, tall and beautiful and whole, as he sees his mother kneeling by the rose bush, his father working on his old trunk, as he hears Laura call out, “They’re here!” he swears to himself he never wants to wake up.

**Author's Note:**

> [me on tumblr](http://marguerite26.tumblr.com/)


End file.
